Author: Kathleen

ah, saturday

Let me just tell you how much I loved today. A LOT.

Any good day off starts with sleeping in, which I did. Then, after some lazing around, David and I decided to cash in on a Cracker Barrel gift card he got for his birthday. Although we’ve been trying to eat healthier this year, we give ourselves one meal a week where we eat what we want. This was DEFINITELY the meal. My love for breakfast food is deep and true, only surpassed by my love for dark chocolate, Blue Bell ice cream, and my Tempur Pedic mattress. And living beings, of course. Anyway, David and I basically ordered one of everything.

Not pictured: the hash brown casserole, French toast, and sausage that we also shared.

We somehow rolled ourselves out to our car when we finished and drove over to Lowe’s. My plan was just to price some blinds for our breakfast room and living room, but David convinced me to just buy them now. I had anxiety about spending the money, but since we’ve been living without privacy for a year now I figured it was worth it.

On the way home we stopped to see our nephew Lucas, where I got to experience this adorableness:

Their cat just crawled on to my back and made herself comfortable while I was playing with Lucas. That never happens to me with cats! I was so excited!

Back at home we set to work installing our new blinds, with the help of our talented and gracious fathers. Conversations with my dad can always be interesting. He is blunt and honest in an endearing sort of way, which makes me nervous at times.

Dad: One thing I’m looking forward to when I get older is being able to tell everyone exactly what I think.

Me: But Dad, you kind of already do that.

Dad: I’m not even close.

Me: (eyes widen in terror)

Amidst such riveting conversation we got the blinds installed and I cannot even believe what a difference they make. The rooms actually look finished now. I keep looking at them. Here is what the breakfast area looked like when we bought the house:

And here it is now, pretty much finished:

And here are the new blinds in the living room:

I’m in love. We had to get them specially cut, and Lowe’s did it perfectly right there while we waited. Eventually I’m thinking some different curtains would be nice for the living room, along with some sort of curtains for the breakfast room, but I am happy with this for now.

After the satisfying completion of that task, I set about making bruschetta to bring to a baby shower tomorrow. I’ve never made it before, and used this recipe. I had to double it, and the mixture turned out looking like this before chilling in the refrigerator overnight:

Can anyone tell me, does this look right? Because I’m not so sure.

I am now ensconced on the couch with my two dogs, watching Ewan McGregor attempt to do a very poor Italian accent in Angels & Demons. Saturdays like these don’t happen very often for us, so I enjoy them to the fullest when they do. It’s been a great day.

January 16, 2010
Book Club: A Reliable Wife by Robert Goolrick

I finished reading A Reliable Wife a couple of weeks ago, but we just had our book club meeting this week. I suggested this one based on the description of it, and I had high expectations. It sounded to me like one of my favorite novels of all time, Rebecca. I love a good romantic mystery.

The story is about a rich businessman named Ralph Truitt who has had a difficult life, and has been living alone in rural Wisconsin for years. Finally he can stand it no longer, and places an ad in the paper for “a reliable wife” motivated by practical, not romantic, reasons. A young woman named Catherine Land accepts his offer, although her plan is to slowly poison him with arsenic and inherit his wealth. But she is unaware that Truitt has his own plans for her.

Overall I liked the book okay, and it was a quick read, but unfortunately it did not meet my expectations. For one thing, I wish it had left more to the imagination. I think Truitt’s lustiness was overdone in the beginning, and the salaciousness of Catherine and her lover was kind of disgusting. There was no buildup of sexual tension, it was just…there.

Also, there were aspects to the writing style that bothered me. The author used a lot of short sentences, which at times felt choppy. I also noticed that he would make drastic, sudden, absolute statements about a character which would be reversed on the next page. It was strange.

I will say that the rest of the members of my book club really liked the story, and it is kind of haunting. I think I was just expecting too much, so I give it three stars. If you’ve read it, let me know what you think.

January 13, 2010
Yesterday Was Depressing, And I’m Not Talking About the UT Game

Yesterday was my amazing husband’s birthday, and I wanted to make it a happy one for him even though I had to work 12 hours and we aren’t “celebrating” until tonight. I woke up in a great mood, decorated a bit, left his personal gift from me out for him to find when he woke up, and headed to work. He loved the gift and had a great day at work. I was trying to keep in touch with him and be extremely positive, but around noon some things started happening that made it hard for me to do that.

I could draw these stories out and make you cry, because I certainly did, but I don’t want to be gratuitous. So I’ll just tell you in brief. First, I spent almost three hours literally standing at the bedside of a patient with her family, giving medications to keep her comfortable as we watched her die, explaining the process to them as it happened in front of our eyes. Afterwards it was my job to spend some one-on-one time with the body removing the invasive equipment and preparing it to be picked up.

Not thirty minutes after that was taken care of, before I really had any time to mentally process it, the code blue alarm went off. This doesn’t happen often on our unit because patients are usually made DNR by the time their disease gets extremely serious. But for the past year we have been taking care of a 24-year-old girl who was pregnant when she found out she had an inoperable tumor wrapped around her heart. Our unit kind of adopted her, and when her baby was born via C-section at 23 weeks we gave her a baby shower. She’s from New Mexico so she didn’t have any supplies here in Houston at the apartment she’d been renting. I’ve had her picture on my refrigerator for months so I’d remember to pray for her and her family.

Yesterday when the code alarm went off it was because her heart stopped pumping and she stopped responding. Unfortunately, her mother wasn’t in the room at the time so we were forced to do all we could to bring her back. If you have never witnessed a scene such as this in real life, you are blessed. There is no thought of modesty as the clothes are ripped off in order to do CPR and defibrillation. The room is swarming with people while the patient is intubated, chest pounded, and stuck with needles. I was one of the first ones there so I ended up being the one pushing medications, applying the heart paddles, and when her IV needle pulled out I had to insert a new one as fast as possible.

We finally got in touch with her mother after almost thirty minutes of CPR with no response at all from the patient, and her mother told us not to continue. She was gone. We quickly cleaned her, removed the tubes and wires, and closed her eyes. Then we went outside and took turns hugging her mother and crying with her. I couldn’t cry long though, because my other patients needed me, and they needed me to be happy as usual, as if nothing had happened.

An hour later I was on my way home to watch UT lose. I wish they would have won, mostly because it meant a lot to my husband, but after the day I had it didn’t seem as important as it had that morning.

I didn’t intend to write this much, but I guess I just needed to get it out. Nurses grieve for their patients, and this is part of me moving on. I hope I can put it away for the rest of the day and give my husband the birthday celebration that he deserves.

January 8, 2010
Resolved

On top of my 101 list, which I am still working on, this year I will:

1. Finally complete that triathlon that I’ve been contemplating for years, and hopefully early on. Right now I’m considering the Gateway to the Bay in Kemah on April 10, the TriGirl Super Sprint in Humble on May 9, and the Capital of Texas Sprint in Austin on May 31. I just joined Ontri to log my training and get workouts, but what I really need is someone to train with. Anyone? Anyone? Come on, it’ll be fun…

2. Read 50 books, or 15,000 pages. Whichever one I achieve first. :)

3. Redesign my blog in a way that I’m satisfied with.

Those are my measurable goals. In addition, I will make these changes:

1. Go back on the Weight Watchers plan in order to get back into the habit of healthy eating. I did it leading up to my wedding and I felt really great about myself during that time. I’ll also need to learn to cook more healthy things. Hopefully my husband and I can help each other out in this area.

2. Focus more on my husband when we are at home together, and spend less time on my computer and more time on him.

3. Start working on the house to decorate and furnish it in a way that makes me happy.

There are other things, but they aren’t as solidified in my mind yet. But it all starts January 5, which is my first full day back from vacation. Today is my last full day of relaxation, and tomorrow is a transition day. Until then, I’ll be lazing around on the couch eating chocolate, bread, and cheese, and pretty much accomplishing nothing.

January 3, 2010
Currently In January
Here we go, 2010! Treat us right, will you?

Current Book(s): FYI, for those of you who read my posts in an RSS feed reader, I keep the top of my sidebar updated with what I’m currently reading. But if you’re too lazy to click through, right now I’m reading A Reliable Wife by Robert Goolrick for my book club. I’m also listening to Wicked on audiobook in my car.

Current Playlist: I made a playlist of upbeat music for running, but it serves a double purpose of being good to listen to on long drives when I’m trying to stay awake. A sampling:
- “We Didn’t Start The Fire” by Billy Joel
- “Marvelous Light” by Christy Nockels
- “Already Gone” by The Eagles
- “Crocodile Rock” by Elton John
- “Hologram” by Katie Herzig
- “You Never Let Go” by Matt Redman
- “Somebody More Like You” by Nickel Creek
- “Wounded” by Third Eye Blind
Current Shame-Inducing Guilty Pleasure: I honestly can’t think of one right now. Good job, self!

Current Drink: Still falling more and more in love with coffee, sadly. I have found that if there is a chance to drink it, I won’t say no.

Current Food: I have spent the past five New Year’s Eves with my friends Carmen and Lauren at their parents’ house in Irving. And every year we make these chocolate bars that we named “Eve-ergreen Bars” because we only make them on New Year’s Eve, serve them up at midnight, and they have a layer of green minty icing. They are basically a sort of brownie (made from scratch), mint icing, with a chocolate glaze on top. That glaze is made solely of chocolate chips and butter. Yeah, it’s good.

Current Favorite Show: Still, the only show I’m watching right now is The Office via Netflix. We’re taking a long time, I know. Only one disc left though!

Current Wishlist: For our bank to support Mint.com. It looks like a fantastic program, and I fell in love with it at first viewing. Sadly, our small bank isn’t recognized yet. I’d also love a local friend to exercise with, or to find a good triathlon training club. Among other things.

Current Needs: Some healthy yet tasty recipes, and to really stick to our budget.

Current Triumphs: I stayed awake until midnight last night, and even managed to have a little fun in the process! Oh, and we played the game Wits & Wagers today, and I actually won both rounds. I was really surprised, because it has a lot to do with numbers, which my mind has no concept of. Each time I won because I was so far behind at the end that I threw caution to the wind and bet it all. Miraculously, I chose right and pulled ahead!

Current Bane(s) of my Existence: Dog hair. It’s EVERYWHERE. I love my pups, but seriously wish they didn’t shed so much. If you have dogs and enjoy a clean house, how do you do it?

Current Celebrity Crush: Robert Downey, Jr. This has nothing to do with what kind of person he is, but everything to do with the fact that he is adorable as Sherlock Holmes, one of my favorite all-time characters.

Current Indulgence: I slept until 11 a.m. this morning, and plan to go to bed at my normal time of around 10 p.m. And keep this up all weekend. Ah, sleep; how I love thee.

Current Blessing(s): If you haven’t realized by now, I’m on vacation for five whole days. It feels amazing.

Current Outfit: Right now I am basically living in jeans and sweaters. And these $12 moccosins from Target:

Current Excitement: Making changes in my life starting January 5th, which is the day I get home from vacation. Exercise & health, finances, blogging, and the way I spend my time. I’ll get more into this tomorrow!

Current Mood: So relaxed I don’t even have a concept of time.

Current Link: Mainly been scouring the iTunes app store lately, trying to find the best way to spend a $15 gift card.

Happy January!
January 1, 2010